Wednesday, September 28, 2016

(GIG HARBOR, WA) -- Peninsula Light Company CEO Jafar
Taghavi thanked 60 Harbor Community Solar participants on Friday, Sept. 16,
during a ceremony held at the Harbor History Museum.

About 100 PenLight members purchased at least one of 1,850
available units last year, when the electric cooperative sought participation.
The 60-kilowatt array was installed last fall by A&R Solar of Seattle.

The project falls in line with Washington state’s renewable
energy incentive program, which will provide each participant a check annually
through 2020 based on the amount of energy produced by the system. The solar
energy is used by the Harbor History Museum, which has seen about a 30 percent
decrease in its electricity bills. The Harbor Community Solar project has been
generating power since November 2015.

PenLight is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric
cooperative. Since 1925, the utility has served the Gig Harbor and Key
peninsulas and Fox Island in western Pierce County. PenLight, a “full requirements
utility” of the Bonneville Power Administration, has grown to be the second
largest cooperative in Washington state. It serves more than 32,000 meters with
977 miles of line in 112 square miles of service territory.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

(PORTLAND, OR) – The Bonneville Power Administration has selected Janet Herrin as its next chief operating officer. Herrin will bring over 30 years of energy industry experience and leadership to BPA. She will replace Claudia Andrews, who is retiring from BPA this month after 26 years of federal service.

“I am very pleased to welcome Janet Herrin to BPA’s senior leadership team,” said Elliot Mainzer, BPA’s administrator. “I have worked closely with Janet over the past few years and have been very impressed with her character, industry knowledge and passion for operational excellence. With her deep understanding of public power, hydroelectricity and the competing demands of managing a public service organization, Janet is exceptionally well positioned to serve as BPA’s next chief operating officer. I look forward to working with her to further strengthen our culture and execute on our most important strategic objectives.”

Herrin, born in Seattle, will start after the beginning of the calendar year. As COO, Herrin will be responsible for Power Services; Transmission Services; Environment, Fish and Wildlife; Customer Support Services and Information Technology. She will also oversee the new Business Transformation Office and play a critical role in BPA’s heightened focus on disciplined program management and cost containment.

Herrin currently serves as a senior advisor to the secretary for the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. In this role, Herrin provides strategic counsel on rapidly changing industry issues and has worked closely with BPA, including on its development of a best-in-class human resources organization.

“I am a public power person – it’s where I like to be and what excites me,” said Herrin. “That passion for public power originally enticed me to join TVA, and then I ended up staying for a 35-year career because the work was so interesting. I am thrilled to be coming home to the Pacific Northwest and to work in public power once again.”

Herrin served as the chief administrative officer at the Tennessee Valley Authority. She led efforts to strengthen the safety culture; improve employee engagement; recruit and maintain a talented and diverse workforce; and implement successful cost-management efforts. Herrin also comes to BPA with valuable knowledge of hydropower from over 32 years of work on the 650-mile Tennessee River system that serves 9 million people, culminating in an 11-year tenure as TVA’s senior vice president of river operations and dam safety.

Herrin has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a Master of Science in civil engineering from Colorado State University and a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and physics from Willamette University. She was a registered professional engineer in Tennessee and plans to re-establish her engineering certification when she comes to BPA.

(VANCOUVER, WA) -- This year, NWPPA received a record-breaking 204 entries from 37 different utility and association members. In comparison, NWPPA received 176 entries from the same amount of members last year.

“I am super excited that this was the year that everyone kicked it up and sent in the most entries ever in the history of this communication contest,” said 2016 NIC Chair Julee Cunningham of Snohomish County PUD in Everett, Wash. “I would like to personally thank the NWPPA members who participated – their participation is what makes this annual contest the highly regarded event that it has become.”

Categories are broken up into four groups: Group A utilities having the smallest number of customers and Group D having the largest. Nine local marketing and communication 2 of 5 professionals volunteered their time to judge the entries. A complete list of the first-, second-, and third-place winners can be found at the end of this release.

In addition to the Excellence in Communication awards, NWPPA presented the 2016 Tom Hougan Award for the best overall communication effort to Clearwater Power Company (Lewiston, Idaho). Clearwater received an impressive average of 45.4 points out of 50 possible, which includes their four first-place awards (Advertising Campaign, Special Publication, Internal Communication, and Wild Card), their second-place award (Photography), and their third-place award (Annual Report). Clearwater Power Company Marketing Communications Specialist Jeff Marshall accepted the award on the utility’s behalf at the banquet.

A fun new award that NWPPA also presented at the awards banquet was the inaugural People’s Choice Award in photography. Attendees viewed all of the photography submissions at Sunday night’s opening reception and voted on their one favorite photo. Pend Oreille PUD (Newport, Wash.) won the award with its photo of Dick Shaw in the field. The same photo also won a first-place Excellence in Communication award in photography in Category A earlier in the evening.

The 2017 Excellence in Communication awards will be presented on September 19, 2017, at the Embassy Suites in Sacramento, Calif.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

BPA,
Kertzman named AOR’s Recycler of the Year for repurposing 30-year-old cubicles

(PORTLAND, OR) -- The Bonneville Power Administration continues
to be recognized for its sustainability efforts. The Environmental
Protection Agency awarded BPA a 2016 Federal Green
Challenge Award for recycling and reducing its paper use. And the Association of
Oregon Recyclers recently named BPA and property disposal officer Kevin
Kertzman its Recycler of the Year for finding a
home for hundreds of 30-year-old office cubicles.

“Finding more sustainable and cost-effective ways to operate is just another
way we’re being a responsible agency and a good neighbor in the Northwest
communities we serve,” said John Hairston, BPA’s chief administrative officer.

EPA’s Federal Green Challenge is a national
effort that encourages federal agencies to lead by example in reducing their
environmental impact in the areas of waste, energy, water, electronics,
transportation and purchasing. In fiscal year 2015, BPA increased its recycling
efforts by 71 percent through the recycling of 2,397 tons of metal, 312 tons of
glass and ceramics, 167 tons of wood and 97 tons of e-waste. BPA also cut its
paper purchases by 61 percent through a reduction of the number networked
printers and the continued adoption of electronic documents and presentations.
And it reduced the need for new purchases by returning $4.3 million worth of
usable materials back into its inventory.

Notably, BPA diverted 80 tons of obsolete ceramic and glass insulators from the
landfill to certified recycling centers in Portland, Oregon. Through its supply
chain, it shipped the insulators from areas that didn’t offer glass and ceramic
recycling to its Investment Recovery Center facility in Vancouver, Washington,
which oversees the auction, transfer or recycling of surplus or obsolete
equipment. BPA was also able to recycle copper wire from the insulators, which
more than covered the glass and ceramic recycling fees.

“It was a win-win,” said Kevin Kertzman, property disposal officer. “Not only
did we reduce our waste, but we were also able to reimburse BPA’s general fund,
in turn crediting our electric ratepayers.”

In
June, the Association of Oregon Recyclers named BPA and Kertzman its Recycler of the Year for finding a
home for hundreds of 30-year-old office cubicles. After a remodel of BPA’s
headquarters in Portland, Kertzman faced the task of disposing of the surplus
workstations. Early on, due to the age and condition of the furniture there
weren’t any takers. But after about a year of looking, and with storage costs
piling up at about a thousand dollars a month, Kertzman learned that Providence
Health & Services, a not-for-profit health and medical care organization,
had offices throughout Washington and Oregon that needed that exact type of
desks, panels and filing cabinets.

“It was a great outcome,” Kertzman said. “We were able to support an important
local not-for-profit agency, while eliminating waste and protecting the
environment.”

BPA has also partnered with the Oregon Department of Corrections to refurbish
old, unwanted office furniture on more of a long-term basis. To date, BPA’s
partnership with ODOC’s Reuse Center has saved thousands of pounds of materials
from the landfill and scraps yards, and provided inmates meaningful work.

“This collaboration is a win all around,” said Chad Naugle, ODOC’s
sustainability program manager. “It benefits the environment, uses
intergovernmental resources, and provides vocational skills for adults in
custody in recycling, repurposing and upcycling.”

Through its regional partnerships for placing and refurbishing outdated office
furniture, BPA estimates it has diverted 40 to 50 tons of material from the
landfill and scrap yard, and saved an estimated $35,000 in storage fees.

In the past five years, BPA has reduced its total energy use by 6.6 percent;
saved nearly 30 million gallons of water; cut its fossil fuel use by 285,127
gallons; and diverted 12,498 tons of waste from landfills.

Last year, BPA received a Federal Green Challenge Regional Award for waste
reduction. In 2014, BPA was recognized by the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency for
outstanding efforts to improve air quality. In 2013, BPA was the first federal
agency to be certified by the City of Portland’s Sustainability at Work
program. And in 2012, BPA received the top award in the EPA’s Federal
Electronics Challenge. For more about BPA’s accomplishments in protecting the
environment, read its fifth annual sustainability report.

(CENTRALIA, WA) -- August was warmer and a little wetter than average in the Twin Cities. For the month, KELA/KMNT weatherman Dean Dahlin says we had 66 degrees, which is 3 and a half degrees above average, and we wound up with 1.42 inches of rain which is two-tenths of an inch above normal. Dean says it starts to cool down in September with an average of 58.7 degrees and just a shade over two inches of rainfall for the month.

About Me

Joel Myer works at an electrical utility in Washington State.
Prior to his current employment, he worked for nine years at the City of Shelton as Special Projects Coordinator.
In 1992, Joel served a three-month term as an appointed Mason County Commissioner. As far as it is known, he still holds the record for the shortest term for a county commissioner in Washington State.
From 1991 through 1992 Joel worked with Washington State University Cooperative Extension, where he conducted an extensive study of the special forest products industry and its economic value to the Pacific Northwest.
From 1980 to 1991 he was News Director at KMAS Radio in Shelton.
Joel is a 1991 graduate of the Evergreen State College, where his focus of study was economics.
Joel Myer is one of the 2018 award winners, Foundation for Water & Energy Education Haiku Contest.
He has been teaching himself to play the ukulele (with limited success) since 2003.